Currently, a conventional data storage system implements its own data model according to the user interface and the business rules specification for that system. For the conventional system, the system's developers write dedicated code and user interface code that displays or manages certain data inputs such as check boxes, lists, combo boxes or other data inputs. Such systems depend upon a specific data model and lack flexibility and portability. The conventional system's dedicated code and user interface in some respects manipulate the data that the conventional system's application stores and retrieves during operation. Moreover, the conventional system stores and retrieves data locally on a local disk, such as a C drive on a Windows system. It is well known that conventional systems may also store data on a remote storage media, e.g. a file server or database.
There are efforts to overcome the lack of flexibility and portability of conventional data storage systems, such as the adoption and utilization of extensible markup language for storing data (e.g., Microsoft Office® XML Open Format, OASIS Open Office XML Format, etc). Data files in open data formats (e.g., XML) facilitate data transfer and are typically stored on a desktop machine. XML data files rely on the structures defined by XML standards, which allows standardized XML parsers to read data files expressed in XML format.
However, open data formats based on XML and other open standards do not interrelate and manage dynamic data sets through process and collaboration and state machines. Open data formats (e.g., XML) also do not provide for inheritance and override behaviors, collaboration or state machine process enforcement, and/or element style normalization.
Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods that store, manage, index, interrelate, and/or retrieve data sets in a manner independent of the data model.